Dominatrix no-show at Mosley trial

Max Mosley's breach of privacy case against the News of the World took a dramatic turn at the High Court yesterday when the dominatrix who filmed his sex session with five girls on behalf of the newspaper failed to turn up. 'Women E' - none of the girls has been named in court - was due to give evidence to support the paper's claim that the sex session had a Nazi theme, something Mosley, who admits to a taste for S&M, vehemently denies.

The newspaper's QC, Mark Warby, told the court that Woman E would not be giving evidence because of her "emotional and mental state". It meant the paper would no longer pursue one of its central arguments - that another of the five women, Woman A, had given instructions that the sex session would have a Nazi theme at Mosley's request. "We will not persist in that case," said Warby. "It is a most regrettable situation to have arrived at."

However, Warby said the News of the World would continue to argue that the S&M role play featured in its video had a Nazi theme on the basis of other evidence, adding that the footage had an "overwhelming, absolutely overwhelming Nazi theme".

On Wednesday, it was once again revealed how the video, posted on the newspaper's website, had shown the motorsport boss shackled and stripped naked for a mock medical, then having his bottom shaved before a cane-swishing dominatrix counted out strokes in German and beat him until he bled.

Mosley's lawyer, James Price QC, insisted this was not in any way Nazi-related. In response, the reporter who broke the story, Neville Thurlbeck, told the court: "It certainly wasn't Hansel and Gretel. I would say the whole video is unmistakably Nazi. When I viewed it I was completely surprised by the level of Nazism as I saw. I thought it might have been a comical, watered down version of 'Allo 'Allo [a BBC comedy series set in Nazi-occupied France]. But when I looked at the evidence it became clear there was a very cynical Nazi theme running through it."

The case has now been adjourned until Monday when closing arguments will be made.

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